Black Lotus Cupcakes

I think I may have actual had one at one time (though, I could be totally wrong about that, but it looks very familiar to me). Apparently, it is one of the most valuable cards and is banned and/or restricted in tournament. In other words, it is the bomb diggity. And, I have made a habit of turning the bomb diggity into sugary greatness. I give you an Asian-inspired cupcake with plum and ginger, with a marshamallow black lotus blossom and a fondant center. The cake is more dense than I am used to, but in a nice, hearty way. The flavors are really lovely!

2. Sift together the the flour, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer.

3. In another bowl. whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, buttermilk, jam and ginger. Add half of the egg mixture and the butter into the stand mixer. Beat on low until the dry ingredients are incorporated, then increase speed to medium for about 1 minute. Add the rest of the egg mixture and beat for another 30 seconds.

4. Fill paper liners about halfway. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool before frosting.

5. To make the frosting, beat the butter and the plum jam with a mixer for a couple minutes. Add all of the powdered sugar and beat on low until the sugar is incorporated. Add the vanilla, salt, and 1 tablespoon cream and beat on medium-low speed for 3-4 minutes. Add more sugar for a stiffer consistency or add more cream for a runnier consistency. Frost the cupcakes.

Ok, now to the fun part – making the lotus flower! I had seen lots of cupcakes online using marshmallows as flower petals, but I wanted to whole flower to be black, not just the inside of the petals. Meaghan Mountford to the rescue! I found this tutorial for rainbow marshmallows and it convinced me to try it for this project. Get your supplies together (small bowl of water, frosted cupcakes, black sugar on a flat surface, marshmallows, and kitchen scissors).

Take a marshmallow and cut it in half diagonally with clean kitchen scissors.

Dip one half of the marshmallow into a small bowl of water. Do this quickly! You want the marshmallow to be slightly wet, not soaking wet. If it is too wet the sugar won’t stick.

Quickly dip and roll the marshmallow in the black sugar until it is completely coated.

Stick the “petal” on a frosted cupcake

Success! Repeat 5-6 times, depending on the size of your marshmallows. For the inside row, cut the marshmallow in half before cutting diagonally to make a small petal.

As you can see, it gets messy! I kept getting black sugar in my water and it started looking pretty grody. It was just black color though! It won’t effect the taste of the marshmallows.

To make the middle of the flower, roll a small piece of purple fondant into a ball.

Dip the ball into the yellow sugar and place in the middle of the cupcake.

You can, of course, tailor these to make whatever flowers you want with different colors. Feel free to experiment!